March 2017 Blog

MUSIC: Partway through the Farmers' Market season, I am finally managing a moment to update this blog. The two remaining Market dates are Thurs., August 3, 10 AM-1 PM, Henderson Center (F @ Henderson, Eureka), and Sept. 26 (Tues.) Fortuna Farmers' Market (10th & Main), 3:30-6:30 PM. At these markets, I play a wide variety of slide guitar pieces, originals and covers, and food songs, all with fingerstyle guitar, vocals, and rack harmonica.

I'll also play another volunteer/benefit luncheon gig at the Eureka Senior Center, Aug 31 (Wed.), 10:45-11:30. ART: In a last-minute development, I am scheduled to install a featured EXHIBIT at the offices of the "lawyers in the Redwoods," Stokes, Hamer, Kirk and Eads, on Bayside between Union and Sunny Brae. I'll show the painting "Two (?) to Tango," the recently redone "Obama Yes I Can," more acrylics and oils, a selection of Haiku Artlets (poems hand-printed on watercolor shards, the size of bumper stickers or large bookmarks), life drawings, and more. The show will commence with a reception on Friday, Aug. 11, as part of Arts Arcata, 6-9 PM with live band and BBQ. Info at 822-3711.

BOTTLENECKS: basically, I have retired from the business. I still have a supply, but make few attempts to add to it, and have only been supplying the two local stores (Wildwood in Arcata, and Mantova's in Eureka) and the occasional retail customer, by request. The business is still for sale, with equipment and sales lists. Inquire via this website or just call (707)445-8242. The recycling centers are harder and harder to access, the best one (Arcata) being closed by corporate/political hostility after a years-long struggle.

POETRY is still at the center of what I am, what I do, and is at the heart of my music. I've now published 21 pieces in the local entertainment weekly, the North Coast Journal, circ. 21K, which publishes one poem per week. Here is a recent one, "Heat":

HEAT (A WINTER FANTASY)

Satisfactions of silence, rickingto and fro in changeless heat.These are the dog days, but without dogs--Smooth leaves shrivel and scallop,enduring the brilliance beyond chlorophyll,green more out of inertia than natural force.

I rock with the rhythms of breathing,chestfuls of heat that will not wane,even if nothing drives this body's furnace.but something in the swaying calls up a glimmer,the lips flicker, the eyes crinklewith the child's playground sense of to and fro.

Yes, these are the last full-out bakingpurges of the last Spring steams risinglike so many departing souls. But we're still here!Flesh endures, though slowed to a crawlWhile the mists gather in the upper reaches,to re-condense, to return, to fall.​I am now busy preparing my poetic entries to the Humboldt County Fair, scheduled to be held in Ferndale in late August. The Art exhibit in Arcata has pre-empted my plans to exhibit art at the Fair, as well.